Yeah but that means no black bars and filling the screen is vitally important. Stuff the extra picture content out on the sides. One day Hollywood directors will get off their high horses and start producing movie content in the right aspect ratio of our TV sets.

Philips does some 21:9 tvs - but we don't get Philips here anymore. For free to air broadcasts I suppose they would have to broadcast a movie widescreen (21:9) compressed into 16:9 and then you would have to stretch it back to 21:9 on your fancy TV. That would make everything look tall and thin for the mainstream 16:9 viewers - so cant see that working so well. I guess it would be good for blu-ray/DVD though...

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

Jaxson: Yeah but that means no black bars and filling the screen is vitally important. Stuff the extra picture content out on the sides. One day Hollywood directors will get off their high horses and start producing movie content in the right aspect ratio of our TV sets.

I think you'll find that the movie industry got into widescreen long before the TV industry. Yeah it pees me off to see "ZoomoVision" done to modern movies so that they fill the screen and the like of Jaxson won't be upset that they're not getting a 100% of the Screen they paid for..

old3eyes:I think you'll find that the movie industry got into widescreen long before the TV industry.

Just show's how old fashioned they are, they need to get with the times. Nobody has wider screens so everything should be made for standard TV resolution.

old3eyes: getting a 100% of the Screen they paid for.

Damn right, I agree with you 100%. I paid good money for my big screen so I don't want to watch a tiny movie in the middle. I want big, fill my whole screen. If I wanted small I'd watch a movie on my cell phone. It's not just me and you, 1000's of people think big is good.

Edit. Actually I should probably point out I'm just having a laugh. I agree that TVNZ is losing out to TV3 with regards quality and where I head to watch movies. 5.1 is awesome on TV broadcasts but yeah it's a pity that the version you are shown is butchered to fit TV's aspect ratio, rather than that of the original.

Why did they not put wider modes in the DVB specs and just let the boxes centercut for 16:9 like they do for 4:3

Speaking of center cut... I was watching it in the workspace on an old 4:3 tv with overscan so bad that you almost dont even see the black bars on analog broadcasts, and there was virtually never any action onscreen - always just parts of it to the left or right of it. It actually was really really frustrating. Doing things like that will drive the uptake of digital and widescreen IMO.

This article is great, thanks, sums it all up really well!Who would have thought that "The Godfather" was shot 16:9 (well approximately)?

I don't mind black bars, but as long as I don't miss the action, I'm happy with the frame being filled.

Back on topic though... Who knows when TVNZ are going to flick the AC3 switch? They've got the "upmixed" surround happening for non-Dolby content in house already. Yes, that's right, stereo content will be made into surround!

hdinsider: Back on topic though... Who knows when TVNZ are going to flick the AC3 switch? They've got the "upmixed" surround happening for non-Dolby content in house already. Yes, that's right, stereo content will be made into surround!